Liz Truss has lashed out at the Conservatives after the party formally apologised to the public for her disastrous so-called mini-budget.
The former prime minister said Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride “kowtowed to the failed Treasury Orthodoxy” and had worked to undermine her as prime minister.
“My plan to turbocharge the economy and get Britain growing again provided the only pathway for the Conservatives to avoid a catastrophic defeat at the election,” Ms Truss claimed.
It came as Sir Mel made a speech in which he promised the Conservatives will “never again” make spending pledges the government cannot afford.
Attacking Ms Truss over her chaotic premiership, Mr Stride said: “The credibility of the UK’s economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for.”
“For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected,” Sir Mel added.
He also used it as a platform to attack Nigel Farage and Reform UK who he claimed were pursuing the same reckless path.
He said: “The Conservative Party needs to shine the light of truth on what Reform is all about.”
Sir Mel claimed that Reform’s plan to raise the income tax threshold to £20,000 would cost “between £50bn and £80bn.”
He added: “To contextualise that, that is something between about third and a half of what we spend on the National Health Service.”
Instead he said his party would launch commissions to look at how to “rip up” red tape and bring down taxes calling for a “period of thoughtfulness” to consider a new “responsible radicalism” for the Tories.
But his focus was on Ms Truss’s tenure in Downing Street which lasted just 49 days after her disastrous mini-budget triggered market turmoil and saw the pound tank to a 37-year low against the dollar.
Ms Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced the biggest raft of tax cuts for half a century in the September 2022 statement, but were quickly forced to climb down over their plan to scrap the top rate of income tax for the highest earners.
She has since admitted her plan to cut the 45p top rate of tax may have gone too far, but insisted it was not fair to blame subsequent interest rate rises on her mini-budget.
As well as spooking markets with the tax cuts themselves, the former PM added to the uncertainty by shunning the usual forecasts from government spending watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), essentially leaving investors in government debt flying blind on the state of the public finances.
But, attacking Mr Stride for calling her legacy into question, Ms Truss said: “Mel Stride was one of the Conservative MPs who kowtowed to the failed Treasury Orthodoxy and was set on undermining my Plan for Growth from the moment I beat his chosen candidate for the party leadership.
“Even when judged by the OBR’s flawed calculations, my plans were chalked up as costing less than the spending spree Rishi Sunak pursued as Chancellor during the pandemic - yet Mel Stride never took him to task over any of that.”
The ex-PM called on Mr Stride to apologise instead on behalf of Rishi Sunak, whose government she said raised taxes to a 70-year high and pursued “unaffordable” net zero policies.
Terry Jermy, who unseated Ms Truss at the general election, overturning her 26,195 majority, said: “The conservatives have finally disowned Liz Truss’ record, my constituents of South West Norfolk did so much quicker.
“The fact it has taken them nearly three years after she wiped £30 billion from the exchequer shows they are not the party of the economy.”
Turning his aim on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after its gains in last month’s local elections, Mr Stride said: “Take Reform. Their economic prescription is pure populism. It doubles down on the ‘magic money tree’ we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn.”
And Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said: “We'll take no lectures on economics from a party that more than doubled the national debt, raised taxes and government spending to 70 year highs and shrank economic growth to 70 year lows.
“Meanwhile we unearth Tory-run councils wasting £30 million on a bridge to nowhere. They can never be trusted again.”
The Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of attacking Mr Farage’s party for “the same fantasy economics” they had pursued “while secretly plotting a pact with them” as they branded the speech “absurd”.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP said: “It’s insulting that the Conservatives think a few warm words will fool people into forgiving them for all the damage they did to the economy and people’s livelihoods.
“Families are still reeling from the Conservatives’ lockdown law-breaking and still paying the price after their mini budget sent mortgages spiralling.
“Now the Conservatives have the cheek to criticise Reform UK for the same fantasy economics while secretly plotting a pact with them: it’s absurd.”
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